US Department of Justice Returns $154 Million in Bitcoins Allegedly Stolen from Sony Life Insurance Company Ltd, a subsidiary of SONY, in what is being called a business email compromise attack (BEC). A BEC is an exploit where an attacker gains access to a business email account and impersonates the owner's identity in order to defraud the company and its employees.
According to the United States Department of Justice, a SONY employee allegedly stole company funds in May and converted them into over 3,879 Bitcoins. These funds were confiscated by law enforcement authorities on December 1, based on a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) investigation.
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The accused was identified as Rei Ishii, who allegedly falsified the transaction instructions, which made having the funds transferred to an account controlled by Ishii at a bank in La Jolla, California. Ishii then quickly converted the funds into Bitcoin cryptocurrency.
The FBI was able to track Bitcoin transfers and identify that 3,879.16 Bitcoins, representing the earnings of funds stolen from the company, were transferred to a specific Bitcoin address and then to an offline wallet of cryptocurrency .
"The FBI was able to recover these stolen funds for two very important reasons," said FBI Special Agent in Charge Suzanne Turner. “First, Sony and Citibank immediately contacted and cooperated with law enforcement authorities once the theft was detected, and the FBI worked closely with both to locate the funds. Second, the FBI presence internationally through our offices.”
